Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
'The life of his political career is dependent on success in this constituency.'
Banerjee claimed that some people will try to "engineer riots" during elections and urged everyone "not to fall prey to the plot".
Saturday's voting will mark the end to the marathon polling process that began on April 19 month and has already covered 486 Lok Sabha seats in 28 states and Union territories.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing leader Pamela Goswami was arrested with cocaine from south Kolkata's upscale New Alipore area on Friday, the police said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday received wholehearted support from a group of women from the troubled Sandeshkhali area who met her after a Trinamool Congress rally in Kolkata, party sources said.
While 'family politics' is one of the major issues in the upcoming Goa legislative assembly polls, a young couple here is perhaps an exception, as both of them are rooting for rival political parties.
A victory in Nandigram would not only establish him as one of the tallest BJP leaders in Bengal but would push him miles ahead of others in the chief ministerial race if the party is voted to power.
The Janata Dal-United leader maintained that having taken the initiative to bring parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party, he desired nothing for himself but admitted having stressed at the meeting the need to expedite seat-sharing arrangements.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with some opposition leaders too expressed surprise over the President not being invited to the important occasion of shifting Parliament to new premises.
BJP chief Amit Shah said the ruling TMC has 'surpassed the violent legacy of the communist rule' in West Bengal.
A young Congress leader from West Bengal says while the Trinamool Congress-Congress party alliance in recent parliamentary election was able to dislodge the Left's stranglehold, the same result could have been achieved even earlier, had the opposition remained united in the state.
From almost being politically wiped out after the West Bengal assembly polls in 2006 to being touted as the woman who will single-handedly usher in the winds of change in the state, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has come a long way. She opens up in a rare interview
Panel chairman Thakur is believed to have informed Dev that the issue was not on the agenda for the meeting.
"The Congress in a way is in the grip of urban Naxals. That is why its thought has become negative," Modi alleged in his 90-minute speech.
'He has always loved to help people. He has donated his blood three times'
Briefing reporters, Nadda said his party has proposed that if holding the three-tier polls together was not possible immediately, then Lok Sabha and assembly elections can be held together first.
Charges under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 307 (attempt to murder) and Section 25/27A of Arms Act were filed against Mamata Banerjee.
I am not ruling out possibility of joining Cong again, says Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra.
Dismissing the allegation, BJP district general secretary Shyamal Roy claimed that the murder was a fallout of infighting within the ruling party.
'Who are these people on the streets?' 'They are youth and students who were hoodwinked, bluffed by Modi for the last seven years, with a promise of 2 crore jobs every year.' 'And Mamata sings the same tune.' 'But the youth can see that as long as there is Mamata or Modi, there is no hope.'
The chief minister, speaking at her first major political rally after the Lok Sabha polls, also said the party will launch a statewide protest on July 26, demanding return of black money "siphoned off" by the BJP.
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
What the INDIA alliance needs is neither a counter to Modi's tall personality and undiminished charisma nor a counter-narrative to his Hindutva agenda, now centred on the Ayodhya temple consecration on January 22, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the cancellation of over 25,000 school jobs as 'gross injustice' and alleged that it was a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop these job losers from being deployed in poll duty.
A youth was arrested in Malda district of West Bengal on the charge of making a derogatory remark against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Facebook.
In controversial comments, Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress member of Parliament and nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, referred Jadavpur University protestors as "drug addicts" questioning whether the student protests in Jadavpur University were because of a ban on drugs and liquor inside the campus.
Manoj Tiwary played 12 ODIs and three T20Is for India between 2008 to 2015, but had a nearly two-decade long career for Bengal during which he featured in 141 first class games,.
On Tuesday, police in Suri in West Bengal's Birbhum district used batons to disperse a rally where 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans were raised.
Road and rail traffic was partially affected in some regions on Monday during a 'Bharat bandh' called against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme, while protests appeared to taper off in many states, with authorities stepping up security and imposing curbs after days of unrest.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'The strategies outlined in Jaitley's Budget won't create the millions of jobs needed to dispel the despair and cynicism of militant youth in the Red Corridor running from Nepal to Tamil Nadu.'
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday slammed the BJP-led central government over the Agnipath scheme, alleging that the saffron camp was trying to create its own "armed" cadre base through the new defence recruitment programme.
A formal invitation for the rally had been sent to Kishor, a senior TMC leader told PTI.
'People say my personality doesn't have sharp edges, but politics doesn't have to be about pulling down your opponents or bad mouthing them.'
The apex court said the high court will be at liberty to take a fresh view on whether the investigation by the state police has been fair and proper, and if not, whether a case has been made out for the transfer of the investigation to the CBI.
"Jai Bangla" was a popular slogan during the Bangladesh liberation war, while the BJP is promising people to make the state "Sonar Bangla" if voted to power in the coming assembly election.
Women staged a semi-nude protest in Assam's largest city Guwahati against an eviction drive in Silsako Beel (lake) area on Friday, as excavators ravaged to the ground several houses to clear alleged encroached land of the wetland.
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